Theatrical Canvases: The Making of "18 Paintings" Part 2

I was so fortunate to be able to assemble a wonderful cast for the workshop from both the dance and theater worlds. Laurel Atwell, Megan Hanley, Cavin Moore, Peter Rothbard, Rachel Troy and Reed Whitney were all wonderful collaborators and schemers throughout the rehearsal process.

After a few weeks of rehearsals, I began thinking of a good framework for the piece. We decided the title should be ”18 Paintings“ to give the audience a suggestion into a way of receiving information from the visual-heavy segments we were creating. Imposing this structure on the piece opened up a lot of questions: What are the basic properties of a visual artwork and how can we translate those properties to the stage? In a theater space, what could be a canvas? Or paint?

I also began to think a lot about what makes paintings particularly painterly. In the documentary Alice Neel, about the life of the late painter, Yale University’s Robert Storr speaks to this:

“The business about the difference between painting and photography becomes crucial in the sense that the photograph does capture somebody in a manner which freezes that person in an instant. Painting never freezes in quite that way—painting takes place over time. But the mere fact that painting is not a second arrested but is a relationship of seeing, and of the seer, and of the subject, means the painting contains duration of time. When you look at a painting you are seeing an extended moment, you are seeing time happen—not just time stop—which gives the photograph a somewhat more obviously morbid characteristic and painting a less morbid one.”

A painter, Store ultimately says, has to continue to look at the subject over a period of time while he or she is rendering the object on a canvas. Therefore, a painter experiences the subject in a state of constant change—the light might differ or the subject’s emotional state may change. I began to wonder how to incorporate these properties into this piece.

The weeks spent rehearsing culminated in a workshop on January 23, 2011, at INTAR where I am an artist in residence. Below are photos and clips!



Rachel Troy as The Angel



Megan Hanley, Peter Rothbard and Reed Whitney as the Trio of Businessmen



The cast of 18 Paintings

Wanna see clips from the showing? Click here to see a clip on our Vimeo page.